A World of Fiction

As children, we were fascinated by fairy tales. Mighty dragons, heroic deeds, memorable characters, and gallant quests would transport the imagination into its own world, leaving mundane reality far behind. As children naturally mature into adults, many forsake their worlds of make-believe for the rocky world of reality. Yet, as a new generation comes forth, adults are often able to recite old rhymes and bedtime stories as if they never forgot them. Throughout the ages, why have adults remembered and cherished these tales of mythical nonsense? Perhaps they have not completely forsaken their make-believe worlds after all.

“There’s nothing like a good fantasy,” states Dionna Hogan, a young preschool teacher.

While many enjoy a romance, fantasy, or action packed story, it seems, readers flock to the spellbinding genres of fiction and bypass those rooted firmly in reality. In times of financial hardship, numerous sectors of the entertainment industry have experienced detrimental downturns. Books and movies, however, have benefited from the return to simpler forms of recreation.

“I’d forgotten how much I like murder mysteries and sci-fi junk. [But] I remember now,” laughs John Stewart, a happy fan of Amazon and Borders. “Besides, I can’t afford to do anything else. I’m broke!”

A noticeable gap has emerged between the sales of fictional and non-fictional books during regular periods and times of recession or inflation. Scholars and other researchers contend this gap as a wide ranging symptom of escapism. A formal definition of escapism is a mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant aspects of everyday life and daily stresses.

In Psychology Today, an article titled Reel Therapy, declares that enjoying a good fictional movie or book is a wonderful, inexpensive remedy and should be considered universally as a clinical tool.

Several therapists recommend using fiction as a means to express ones’ self, and find happiness in creativity. An interactive site which follows this advice is Library Thing. When escapism is typed into the tag line of http://www.librarything.com/tag/escapism, Harry potter and a number of other fictional gold mines are pulled up. Not only does Library Thing connect users to related books and printed works, but also to other readers of the same genres. In the right-hand column of the site, it lists several related tags to your search, and breaks them down into a further, detailed genre classification.
Alex Haynes, a young and upcoming internet radio personality, admits that he often relaxes with a good “who done it.”

“People are cutting back, but they’re still going to find ways to be entertained, and more times than not it boils down to a good book,” states Haynes.

An interesting novel, aptly titled Culture and Adultery, briefly speaks on the need of a culture to expand and escape from the mundane. The full title of the work is Culture and Adultery: The Novel, the Newspaper, and the Law. Although, republished in 1999, the book documents the time frame between 1857 and 1914. The power and influence of a great fictional or fictionalized form of work can range from having subtle to revolutionary influence on the people of the era. In a time filled with persistent, adaptable diseases, extreme class differentiation, and the greater part of the population well below the poverty line, the limited sources of entertainment were most often an extreme stretch of the truth or complete fantasy.

Our imaginations have not stopped stretching, and our choices for visual entertainment typically reflect that. The uproar amongst teens and young adults for the vampire and magic based worlds of the Harry Potter and Twilight series are prime examples.

“The Twilight thing is huge. I love them myself!” laughs Hogan.

Escaping into a good plot is a wonderful way to relax and ease your mind. It seldom does any harmful or lasting damage, however, becoming immersed in a fictitious reality is not recommended for the mentally or emotionally unstable. They may lose a sense of reality, and find it more difficult to cope with problems that do not magically disappear.

A good story is reminiscent of a mirage. You become so engulfed in the world it creates that you can be let down when reality rushes back in. However, the vast majority of readers find they are better able to cope with their own lives and issues after reading about more “fantastical” problems and dramas.